System and method for consumer-selected advertising and branding in interactive media

ABSTRACT

A user of an interactive medium may select advertising for display on the user&#39;s avatar, property, or other user-associated environment. The invention presents one or more advertisements to the user and allows the user to select at least one advertisement to display. The user may also choose a location for displaying the selected advertisement. The invention presents the selected advertisement to other users of the interactive medium. The invention tracks these presentations or displays and rewards the original user based on the presentation. The tracking data may also be used to bill the advertiser or optimize the process of selecting and displaying advertisements.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/204,707, filed on Aug. 7, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/267,145, filed on Nov. 7, 2008, which isa continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/128,260,filed on May 13, 2005, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/675,958, filed on Sep. 29, 2000, which claimsthe benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/204,179, filed on May15, 2000, the contents of all of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In conventional advertising formats, the consumer is a recipient andrelatively passive vis-a-vis the advertising. The advertising is ineffect pushed or thrust upon a non-voluntary and often indifferentconsumer, who may become jaded to the experience and make an effort toignore the advertising, or consider it part of the background. Even whenthe advertising is applied to the participant's own avatar in aninteractive game (a race car, for example), the participant has no sayin what advertising is applied, and no real interest in the issue.

In an increasingly interactive world, advertisers and media outlets areusing new venues to sell to and entertain consumers. These venues makeuse of a wide range of diverse devices. Simultaneously, the increaseddiversity has empowered consumers by forcing advertisers and mediaoutlets to find new ways to distribute their messages. The interactivenature of the venues provides the basis upon which to build a solutionby bringing consumers in as active participants.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a way for sponsors to promote theirbrands or otherwise advertise products and services in virtual and realenvironments such as computer networks and other interactive media suchas interactive television and dynamically-modifiable displays, audiomessages, streaming video, or other multimedia modalities. The inventionprovides users with the ability to choose, create, and the likesponsors' logos, names, commercial symbols, advertisements and so on toappear on their avatars, such as in a virtual spaces, on virtual objectsor the like within the virtual environments. According to aspects of theinvention, the virtual environment includes dynamically modifiablepresentations, audio streams, interactive television, etc., as well asdynamically modifiable information sources. The invention provides amechanism for audience members (consumers) to choose, create, or thelike the logo, names, commercial symbols, virtual objects associated orso on with an advertiser, or advertisements that are presented on theiravatars, game pieces, game elements such as cards in an online cardgame, within information sources or the like whose content the consumersmay control or influence. Similarly, the invention provides consumerswith the ability to choose the advertisements presented to them withinaudio, streaming video, or other multimedia modalities. The inventionalso may provide methods for deriving revenue or other rewards fromthose choices, and may provide mechanisms for tracking, optimizing, andbilling for the usage of those logos, names, commercial symbols,advertisements, or the like according to aspects of the methods.

The invention seeks to involve participants more directly in the matterof advertising, to provide incentives for them to adopt and deployadvertising, and to provide a source of revenues based thereon. Itresolves or mitigates the conflict between the goals of the user and theadvertiser by providing a method of advertising that makes participantsin the virtual world willing agents of the advertiser and advertisingpart of their activities. Participants may include consumers, hosts,vendors, teams, groups or any other variety of users of interactivemedia.

According to the aspects of the invention, the method for selectedadvertising using a virtual world operates by providing an advertisementgroup, concept, campaign or the like to a participant, wherein theadvertisement group includes at least one of an advertisement, one ormore advertisements of one or more categories, or one or moreadvertisements of one or more advertisement profiles; receiving aselection of the advertisement group from the participant, where suchselection may be the creation of the ad by the participant; when aplurality of locations exists, providing the plurality of locations forthe participant to choose to present the advertisement group using thevirtual world and receiving a selection of one or more locations fromthe plurality of locations from the participant; when only one locationexists, selecting the location; creating a selected advertisement groupfrom the selection of the advertisement group and either of i) theselection of the one or more locations or ii) the one location; storingthe selected advertisement group, the selection of one or morelocations; providing for presentation to a user of the selectedadvertisement group using the virtual world, wherein the users haveaccess to the virtual world; and providing a reward to at least theparticipant, wherein the reward is based on at least the creating of aselected advertisement group and at least one of the creation,selection, display or response to the advertisement can be tracked. Thetracking of data related to the advertisement can then be used to adjustthe creation, selection or display systems and methods as well as thereward and billing systems and methods associated with the creation,selection or display processes. Sampling and tracking methods mayinclude advertising on a billboard or 3-D object with linking to aweb-based survey, requests made through groups, and the use of surveybots (automated avatars for collecting data, which may be transferreddirectly to a database, in a virtual world) as examples. The dataprocessing of the tracked information can employ analytical techniques,including but not limited to statistical and predictive modeling methodslike multivariate analysis of variance, or average variance extracted(AVE), for nomological, discriminant and convergent validity. Theanalyzed information, be it in the form of discrete data, trends, orpatterns, can then be used either in a manual or, more preferably, anautomated system to optimize the desired result of the advertisement.The desired result, in the case of a participant or host, may be toincrease participation via the rewards. In the case of a participant,the desired result may be to increase rewards via participation. In thecase of an advertiser, the desired result may be to create brandawareness to sell more goods or services in and via the virtualenvironment.

Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention a machine readable storagemedium stores instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause themachine to perform selected advertising within an interactive medium.The instructions include providing an advertisement group, whichincludes at least one advertisement, to a first user. A selection of atleast one advertisement from the advertisement group by the first useris received and used to generate a selected advertisement. The firstuser may also select one or more locations from a plurality of locationsfor presenting the selected advertisement. The selected advertisement ispresented to at least other user in the interactive medium, and thefirst user receives a reward based on the presentation of theadvertisement. The instructions also generate tracking data that can beused for billing purposes, optimizing the selection of an advertisement,optimizing the selection of at least one location, optimizing theprocess of creating a selected advertisement, and optimizing the rewardprocess.

The advertisement and the location may be selected using the interactivemedium or an ancillary support environment, such as an interface forexchanging information and choices. Examples of an ancillary supportenvironment include electronic mail, web browser, online agent, instantmessaging, paging, text messaging, internet resources, video messaging,and short message service. Examples of an interface for exchanginginformation and choices include a mobile station, a wireless device,user equipment, an internet enabled device, a media player, and a gamingsystem. A machine may be a processor executing the instructions or aplurality of processors executing the instructions in a distributedmanner. Providing a reward may include tracking an interaction with theadvertisement and providing a reward to the first user based on thatinteraction. Examples of an interaction include sharing at least oneaspect of the interactive medium using the advertisement, tracking clickevents and click-through events, and transferring aspects of theinteractive medium to another medium. The reward may include coupons,merchandise, credits, goods, services, information about a virtualworld, information about real world events, opportunities in a virtualworld, virtual money, money, discounted products, discounted services,access to restricted content, contest clues, licensing fees, royaltyfees, a benefit in a game, or increased social status.

The machine readable instructions may also include creating a consumerprofile, including registration information, environment continuationinformation, information on the selected advertisement, information onthe selected location, and reward information. The interactive mediummay include media presented via mobile devices, streaming video,streaming audio, radio, television, voice portal, web site, web meeting,internet resources, Internet enabled devices, gaming systems, or aninformation presentation environment. A location for displaying anadvertisement may include a wearable display, a game piece, a game card,a game element, a display controlled or influenced by the first user, aportion of a web page, a portion of a web page for a period of time, atime slot in an audio or video stream, a portion of screen real estatein a video stream, a radio or television broadcast, an on-hold audiomessage, real world clothing, an electronic billboard, a billboard witha processor-controlled display, a vending machine, programmable paper, avirtual character, a virtual representation of a user, a virtual place,media present in a real-world space, or media projected onto areal-world space. The reward may also be provided to an advertiser or asponsor. The first user may be charged a fee based on the selectedadvertisement. Presenting or displaying the advertisement may occur attimes and places selected by a user or determined by sensors thatprovide information indicating a user's actions or a user's location.

The interactive media may include media displayed on interactivetelevision, an electronic bumper sticker, an article of clothing with aflexible screen, a billboard with a processor-controlled display, amobile telephone, a personal digital assistant, a tablet computer, amobile station, user equipment, a gaming system, an augmented realitydisplay, a telepresence system, or a videoconference display. Theinteractive medium may include a collaborative virtual environment, amulti-user virtual environment, a massively multiplayer online game, avirtual world, an interactive themed environment, or an augmentedreality system.

The advertisement group may include one or more advertisements in one ormore categories. The advertisement may include an image, an audio clip,an animated image, a multimedia movie, a behavior for an object in theinteractive medium, an object that confers a benefit in a game, or amulti-user event in the interactive medium. The advertisement may alsoinclude a logo, a name, a commercial symbol, a virtual object associatedwith an advertiser, an audio clip, a video clip, or a banner. Thecategories may include a type of product, a brand, a vendor, a company,a specific product, products relevant to a specific activity orinterest, and advertisements of a specific advertiser.

An advertisement group may include an advertisement profile, whichincludes multiple advertisements selected from one or more categories.Each advertisement may include an image, an audio clip, an animatedimage, a multimedia movie, a behavior for an object in the interactivemedium, an object that confers a benefit in a game, or a multi-userevent in the interactive medium. The categories may include a type ofproduct, a brand, a vendor, a company, a specific product, productsrelevant to a specific activity or interest, and advertisements of aspecific advertiser. Each advertisement may include a logo, a name, acommercial symbol, a virtual object associated with an advertiser, anaudio clip, a video clip, or a banner. The advertisement profile may beprovided by a user, a host of the interactive medium, or a partycommissioned to create the advertisement group (e.g. an advertisingagency).

The advertisement may include an advertisement concept or anadvertisement campaign within the interactive medium. The reward mayinclude intangible rewards. The first user may create an advertisementin the advertisement group. The reward may be adjusted to incentivizethe first user to choose certain options when selecting anadvertisement, selecting a location, or creating a selectedadvertisement. Billing purposes may include billing a host of theinteractive medium, billing an advertising agency, and billing a companythat is advertising at least one of its products. Certain steps, such asoptimizing the selection of an advertisement, optimizing the selectionof a location, optimizing the creation of a selected advertisement, andoptimizing the giving of a reward, may be automated processes. Automatedprocesses may include statistical processing, artificial intelligence,and predictive analytical techniques.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method for providingselected advertising within an interactive medium includes providing anadvertisement group, which includes an advertisement, to a first userand receiving the selection of at least one advertisement from theadvertisement group from the first user. The selection generates aselected advertisement. When multiple locations exist, the methodprovides the locations to the first user to choose a location forpresenting the advertisement within the interactive medium, and themethod receives a selection of one or more locations from the firstuser. The method also presents the selected advertisements to anotheruser in the interactive medium and provides a reward to the first userbased the presentation. The method tracks the selected advertisement,the presentation of the selected advertisement, and the reward togenerate tracking data that can be used for billing purposes, optimizingthe selection of an advertisement, optimizing the selection of alocation, optimizing the creation of a selected advertisement, oroptimizing the reward.

In yet another aspect of the invention, a system for selectedadvertising within an interactive medium is described. The systemincludes a means for providing an advertisement group, which includesone or more advertisements, to a first user and a means for receivingthe selection of at least one advertisement from the advertisement groupfrom the first user. The selection generates a selected advertisement.When multiple locations exist, the system provides the locations to thefirst user to choose a location for presenting the advertisement withinthe interactive medium, and the system receives a selection of one ormore locations from the first user. The system also includes means forpresenting the selected advertisement to at least one user within theinteractive medium and means for providing a reward, based on thepresentation of the selected advertisement, to the first user. Thesystem tracks the selected advertisement, the presentation of theselected advertisement, and the reward to generate tracking data thatcan be used for billing purposes, optimizing the selection of anadvertisement, optimizing the selection of a location, optimizing thecreation of a selected advertisement, or optimizing the reward.

Additional features, advantages, and embodiments of the invention may beset forth or apparent from consideration of the following detaileddescription, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is to be understood thatboth the foregoing summary of the invention and the following detaileddescription are exemplary and intended to provide further explanationwithout limiting the scope of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form partof the specification, illustrate aspects of the present invention and,together with the description, further serve to explain the principlesof aspects of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of the network components, data repositories andtheir respective interconnections used in one aspect of the invention.

FIGS. 2A-2D show flowcharts illustrating the various operations of themethod, according to aspects of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a sample branding selection screen as used in one aspect ofthe invention.

FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C show the database fields for users, advertisers andtransactions, respectively, as used in an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a scene from a virtual world in accordance with one aspectof the invention, in which a participant's avatar is wearing an item ofclothing with a participant-selected designer logo.

FIG. 6 shows a scene from a virtual activity in accordance with oneaspect of the invention, in which a participant has selected to put aCoca-Cola® logo on the participant's avatar and an Adidas® poster on theparticipant's furniture in a virtual space.

FIG. 7 illustrates a diagram of a computing environment capable of beingadapted to perform the operations of the advertising system, accordingto an aspect of the invention.

It should be understood that these figures depict aspects of theinvention. Variations of these aspects will be apparent to personsskilled in the relevant art(s) based on the teachings contained herein.For example, the flow charts contained in these figures depictparticular operational flows. However, the functions and steps containedin these flow charts can be performed in other sequences, as will beapparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) based on theteachings contained herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Many forms of online interactive entertainment immerse participants in avirtual world, which may closely reflect the real world in somerespects, but in other respects, a virtual world may dramatically andselectively amplify real world experiences. To personalize the user'sexperience, the concept of “self” must be carried into the virtualenvironment as well. It is common in such forms of entertainment foreach participant to be provided with an “avatar” that represents how theparticipant's “self” is manifested in the virtual world.

The concept of an “avatar” is used extensively in this application. Tobetter understand how the term “avatar” is used herein, it is helpful toconsider how one interacts with the virtual world or how users in thereal world view the virtual world, as is described in further detailherein.

As used herein, an “avatar” may be understood to include a graphicalobject in 2D or 3D, often representing a persona of a user, but notlimited to such a representation, appearing within an interactivemedium. As the term is used in connection with aspects of the invention(discussed in detail below), an avatar may act under the direct controlof the user and provides for interaction with the environment in theuser is found. However, it may be pre-programmed or the like by the userto perform certain behaviors, or it could simply perform behaviors,actions, or functions that are hardwired by the system. According toaspects of the invention, an avatar may take on the visual appearance ofany living creature in humanoid, animal, plant, mythical, or other form,or it can be an animated depiction of a non-living thing such as arobot, vehicle, weapon, computer, constellation of stars, etc. Inalternative aspects, the interactive medium can be viewed on amodifiable display such as an electronic bumper sticker, a tee shirtwith a flexible LCD panel, a billboard display, or so on that may becontrolled by a computer or other processor, and the avatar can befashioned to look like an inanimate object or fill a portion of, somepart of, or fill the entire display to render one or moreadvertisements.

According to aspects of the invention, an interactive medium may beimplemented using one or more computer networks and the like (known as“networked virtual environment”) and other interfaces such asinteractive television, interactive media players, mobile stations,wireless devices, internet enabled devices, user equipment (UE), and anyfuture advancement thereof, and the like and the projection ofinteractive content to an audience. The interactivity provided bycertain interfaces, such as interactive television, may be narrower thanthe interactivity provided by the aspects of the invention. They are notone and the same thing, and the method provides for additional kinds ofinteractivity among users, advertisers, etc., as are described in detailherein. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the relevant arts wouldunderstand that the aspects of the invention provide interactivity whileutilizing a greater range of devices as opposed to just television.

As one of ordinary skill would appreciate based at least on theteachings provided herein, the interactivity of the invention providesfor the creation, selection and/or presentation of advertisements invarious forms through interactive environments. As such, according toaspects of the invention, the interactive nature of aspects of theinvention may provide a system that is changeable by a user andresponsive to changes by the user, advertisers, or in the virtual world.Also, mobile telephones or other communicating mobile devices such aspersonal digital assistants, tablet PCs, programmable displays onclothing, automobiles, or other personal or real property, “real-world”virtual environments or the like such as interactive themed environmentsare also included as interactive media. It is important to note,however, that none of the aspects of the invention require the actualdisplay to be interactive. A “networked virtual environment” implementsa virtual world, a 2D or 3D representation or simulation of a physicalspace. The networked virtual environment may be accessible over acomputer network, digital media network or the like by multipleparticipants, who may interact with the virtual world and with oneanother in near-real time. Similarly, an “interactive television” may bea conventional television content augmented with interactive facilities,that may be delivered over a digital channel augmented by a back channelto the content broadcaster and by a terminal, other control device orthe like. Users and viewers may be able to interact with the content viathe control device.

Traditionally, avatars are thought of as representations of people,which are distinct from the rest of an interactive medium, such as avirtual world. This delineation is not required, however, by the aspectsof the invention, which goes beyond the classical utilization ofavatars. Examples of this are clear from the aspects described herein,such as, but not limited to the application to wearable displays, whichmay be on tee-shirts, which allow for the avatar to be the displayportion of the tee-shirt, and the virtual world to be presented throughit to other users. In an early, traditional sense, the avatar usuallytakes the form, for example, of “first-person” games, where the view ofthe virtual world is through the eyes of the avatar, as the centralacting figure, or a third-person perspective (from the point of view ofa third-party avatar or camera watching them). According to theseaspects, participants interacting with the virtual environment may viewadvertisements, or alternatively, the advertisements may be presented tonon-participants who are not represented by an avatar in the environmentor who may be outside in the real world looking at a display of thevirtual world.

The concept of “advertising” is also used throughout this application.For purposes hereof, the term “advertising” is used in a broad sense,and is intended to cover traditional advertisements, as well as the useof “brand marks,” which can take the form of a corporate symbol or logo,a trademark, advertising text or copy, a graphical picture, a banner adon a web page, any visual or auditory multimedia or streaming mediaelement or the like employed for the purposes either of advertising perse, or simply promoting or exposing a product, brand, trademark servicemark, and so on. Even when used alone without specific reference tobranding and brand marks, the term “advertising” should be understood torefer to the use of such images and indicia as well as to traditionaladvertising.

According to aspects of the invention, the method may operate toaccomplish, but it is not limited to, one or more of the following:

Encouraging positive rather than negative consumer attitudes aboutadvertising by giving the consumers a positive role in the selection ofadvertising;

Further encouraging consumer adoption and deployment of advertising byproviding financial incentives for participants, hosts, or users toadopt and deploy advertising indicia;

Developing advertising pricing models based on such methods of addeployment;

Developing server pricing models for the consumer based on applicationof offsetting ad revenues;

Providing a mechanism for the participants, hosts, users, and so on todisplay advertising for his/her own products, services, or interests;

Developing on-line events, dealings, interactions, or the like based oncommon chosen sponsorship;

Providing a means for participants, hosts, users and so on to becomecreative contributors to commercial advertising media;

Providing a means for user-selected or created advertising to be placedon web pages for viewing by the user or by others; and

Providing a means for user-selected advertising to become integratedwith real world items like clothing, dress, stickers, billboards,posters, vending machines, “programmable paper,” media or the likeprojected onto a real-world space, or any other programmable ordynamically modifiable display or device.

Providing a means for tracking one or more of the creation, selection ordisplay of the advertisement.

Providing a means for analyzing the data from the tracking of one ormore of the selection, creation or display of the advertisement.

Providing a means for using the data or the analysis of the data tomodify one or more of the creation, selection, or display of theadvertisement.

Providing a means for the participant, host or user to access thecollected or analyzed data for their use.

Providing a means for modifying the reward for the advertisement basedon the collected data or the analysis of the collected data.

Providing a means to employ modeling and predictive analysis on thecollected data to automate changes in advertisements.

Providing a means for automatic changes in advertisements to impact thecreation, selection, display or reward aspects of the invention. Theautomatic changes may include shifts in type of advertisement, locationof advertisement, transmission method of advertisement, reward systemfor advertisement and so on.

In further aspects of the invention, the method may collect data onconsumer preferences without encountering the resistance to disclosingproduct and brand preferences commonly expressed by consumers in surveysand the like. Advertisers may be billed or rewarded on a number ofbases, including ad exposure, ad response, ad location, ad transmissionand the like. The billing or rewarding methods may also be tied to theautomated changing of the advertisements.

Recruiting participants who may then use interactive media to advertiseto the users, i.e., other participants and viewers, of that medium, mayaccomplish at least the above described features of the invention. Eachuser entering or viewing an interactive medium may select from or createat least a set of available advertisements, which may be displayed inthe medium. Users may be provided with incentives to do this by theavailability of rewards, such as coupons or real or virtual money orother resources, which may be provided by the advertising sponsors,based on adoption of the advertising by the user, as well as on factorssuch as exposure of the selected advertisements to other users in thevirtual world.

By allowing the user, participant, or host to exercise advertisingchoice, this aspect also facilitates collection of data regardingconsumer preferences.

The aspect of the consumer-choice-avatar advertising-method aspect ofthe invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1-5, and described in the textthat follows. Although the following focuses on particular aspects ofthe invention, the claims appended to this application should not beinterpreted as limited by the particular details disclosed in connectionwith those aspects.

Referring to FIG. 1A the networked virtual environment of one aspect ofthe invention may be generated on one or more servers 102, 104, etc.distributed over a computer network 110; received by participatingconsumers' computers 112, 114, 116, etc. by client computer programs122, 124, 126, etc. (which may be of an animated graphical nature); anddisplayed on consumers' devices, such as computer displays 132, 134,136, etc. by those programs. The networked virtual environment may beaccessible over the computer network by multiple participantssimultaneously.

The environment projected may be the setting for a networked (online)game or other online entertainment activity such as a virtual dance,virtual sporting event, life or fantasy simulation, networked gambling,etc. It may also be an online commerce setting such as a virtual store,virtual shopping mall, virtual town square, or virtual trade show; or itcan be an online communications setting such as chat, instant messaging,virtual meetings, virtual rallies, virtual conferences, etc. The hostmay also allow consumers to merely watch the virtual world on otherdevices, as described elsewhere herein, such as, for example,billboards, store-front signs, banners, and other public displays, asone of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate based at least on theteachings provided herein.

Alternative aspects of FIG. 1 include the application of automatedteller machines (ATM), telephones, smart cards, and other devices, asone of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s) would appreciate based atleast on the teachings provided herein, as client computers 112, 114,and 116. In addition, various aspects of the invention may make use ofan ancillary support environment 111 within at least program 122, asshown in FIG. 1. In alternative aspects of the invention, the ancillarysupport environment 111 may, as is indicated in FIG. 1, be implementedon another or more than one platform. In such aspects, the ancillarysupport environment may operate on more than one client or type ofdevice.

According to an aspect of the invention, the ancillary supportenvironment 111 may provide an interface for the client computer 112 viathe computer network 110 to the server 102. The networked virtualenvironment may be supported by an ancillary support environment (suchas ancillary support environment 111 described in greater detail herein)that may have access to one or more distinct networks, such as, but notlimited to, computer network 110, in various forms, but is distinct,separate or outside of the virtual world, for example, menus, dialogboxes, control panels or the like provided by client programs such asclient program 122, or separately enabled, but interconnected via thecomputer network 110, or implemented on the server 102. In optionalaspects of the invention, the ancillary support environment 111 may beimplemented on more than one of these systems. While FIG. 1 describescomponents of the networked virtual environment to project a setting fora networked game or other online entertainment activity, a virtual worldmay be implemented in other interactive media such as interactivetelevision. In addition, the ancillary support environment may beimplemented using traditional communications media such as telephone,email, a form on a web site, mobile phone, or paper and physical mail,and communicated to the servers using conventional means such as opticalcharacter recognition or manual data conversion. Further, thepreferences specified in the ancillary support environment may be storedin digital media that are off-line from the network, for example, on a“smart card,” and acquired by the networked environment at the time theuser accesses the network.

When participating in the virtual world, consumers may be exposed to theimages and sounds of their own and other consumers' avatars interactingwith one another in the virtual environment. A flow chart depicting asimple course of interaction between a user and this aspect of theinvention is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. The user selects a presentationlocation (206), which may be on an avatar or some other location, asdescribed elsewhere herein which the participant may have the ability toselect as a location for the advertisement. The advertisement oradvertisements may then appear on the object or in the interactivemedia. This may be permitted within the ancillary support environment111, within the virtual environment, or both. When creating or modifyingtheir avatars, users may be presented with multiple choices for theadvertisements that may be displayed on the avatars or in theinteractive media. The user may select (208) one or more advertisementsto appear in parts of the avatars, they may place the advertisements onthe avatars.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the user may be provided an ancillarydialog box 301 with “Designer Logo” selections 303, 305, 307 (that mayread from advertisement database 152 in FIG. 2A for example) that may beselected with a mouse and dragged onto an appropriate location (309) onthe clothing of avatar 310. Alternately, the user may find appropriatebranded materials in the virtual world, and apply them by taking actionssolely in that world. Preferably, the advertisement may be associatedwith a display mode constraint to require it to be displayed in thespecified manner and orientation, and preferably further in a mannerthat makes its association with the avatar of the consumer who selectedthe advertisement obvious to most participants.

The advertising selection ancillary control (such as dialog box 301) mayalso specify how the advertisement may be displayed if selected, theamount of control the consumer may exercise over the time and manner ofthe display, what rewards may be given to the consumer for displayingeach advertisement, and the variables upon which the nature and size ofthe reward depend. Alternatively, the various aspects of the inventiondescribed herein may be determined by software operating on either orboth of the server(s) 102, 104. For example, in aspects of theinvention, the software may specify how the advertisement may bedisplayed if selected, the amount of control the consumer may exerciseover the time and manner of the display, what rewards may be given tothe consumer for displaying each advertisement, and the variables uponwhich the nature and size of the reward depend.

The user may perform the selection and placement process by using theclient computer programs (122, etc, in FIG. 1). When the user indicatess/he is satisfied with the selection (210 in FIG. 2A), the relevantinformation may be transmitted to the server(s) 102, 104 and stored inconsumer database 150 and presentation tracking database 154. Then,whenever the servers cause the avatar representing that user to appearin the networked virtual environment (221), the relevant advertisementsmay be dynamically included (223) in the presentation of the avatarwithin the networked virtual environment. Other users whose avatars arenearby in the virtual world thus “see” this advertisement. The user alsosees (225) ads placed by other users on or in connection with theiravatars. Server(s) 102, 104 may cause the exposure of advertisements inthis manner to be logged in databases 150, 154.

One of ordinary skill in the art, based at least on the teachingsprovided herein, will be able to understand that, according to theaspects of the invention, the information concerning the user's choicesin the selection and placement process may alternatively be stored inoffline media such as a “smart card” or in the memory of mobile devicessuch as cell phones. According to aspects of the invention, interactivedisplay devices such as digital billboards, or the electronic display ofvending machines may be used to present the advertisements to users.Information concerning this presentation may then be transmitted by thedevice, or stored in the offline medium for later transmission toserver(s) 102, 104.

In FIG. 2C, a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of theinvention, according to various aspects of the invention. The method maybe performed, as is described herein, by computers or other machineswith access to machine readable storage medium. The method beginsoperation at 248 and may proceed to operation 250, where anadvertisement group may be provided to a participant. According toaspects of the invention, the advertisement group itself may include atleast one of an advertisement, one or more advertisements of one or morecategories, or one or more advertisements of one or more advertisementprofiles. The method may proceed to operation 252.

At operation 252, the method may receive a selection of theadvertisement group from the participant, and may proceed to operation254. At operation 254, the method determines whether there is more thanone location upon which the advertisement group may be placed. When aplurality of locations exists, the method may proceed to operation 256and may provide the plurality of locations for the participant to choosefrom, in order to present the advertisement group using the virtualworld. The method, at operation 258, may receive a selection of one ormore locations from the plurality of locations from the participant.When only one location exists, the method, at operation 260, may selectthe location.

At this point, from either of operations 258 or 260, the method mayproceed to operation 262, and may create a selected advertisement groupfrom the selection of the advertisement group and, when there is morethan one location, the selection of the one or more locations.

The method of the invention, according to various aspects of theinvention, may proceed at operation 264 to store the selectedadvertisement group. In aspects of the invention, the method may storeone or more of these items in one or more of the various databasesdescribed above with respect to FIG. 1, 2A or 2B. The method then mayproceed to operation 266.

At operation 266, the method may provide for presentation to a user ofthe selected advertisement group using the virtual world, wherein theusers have access to the virtual world; and, then, at operation 268, themethod then may provide a reward to at least the participant. Accordingto aspects of the invention, the reward may be based on at least thecreating of the selected advertisement group. In an alternative aspect,the reward may be based on other criteria, as described elsewhereherein, and as one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate basedat least on the teachings provided herein.

In aspects of the invention, the advertisement group and the pluralityof locations may be provided using at least one of i) the virtual worldor ii) an ancillary support environment. In additional aspects of theinvention, the ancillary support environment may include one or moreinterfaces for exchanging information and choices.

In FIG. 2D, the method of the invention may, according to aspects,perform the additional operations of: (operation 270) tracking one ormore interactions with the selected advertisement group by the user; and(operation 272) providing a reward to at least the participant, whereinthe reward may be based on at least the one or more interactions or thelike.

According to aspects of the invention, the reward may be tangible orintangible and may include at least one of coupons, merchandise,credits, goods, services, information about the virtual world,information about real world events, opportunities in the virtual world,real money, virtual money, codes to unlock levels in a game, informationto access restricted areas of a virtual world, digital music downloadsor the like.

In an optional aspect of the invention, the method may perform theoperation 274 of creating a consumer profile for the participant,wherein the consumer profile includes at least one of (a) registrationinformation, (b) environment continuation information to allow theparticipant to continue where the participant previously left in thevirtual world, (c) information on one or more the selected advertisementgroups of the participant, (d) information on the selection of theadvertisement group, or (e) information on the at least one selection ofthe one or more locations, or (f) reward information. This operation isillustrated in FIG. 2D, as operation 274. In further aspects of theinvention, the category may include type of product, brand, vendor,company, a specific product, products relevant to a specific activity orinterest, or advertisements of a specific advertiser or the like.

In another aspect of the invention, the advertisement profile mayinclude a plurality of the advertisements selected from one or morecategories. In yet another aspect of the invention, the advertisementprofile may be provided by the participant.

As one of ordinary skill in the relevant art would recognize, theinteractive medium, which includes a virtual world or a virtualenvironment, may include, based on the expanded teachings ofinteractivity provided herein, media displayed on mobile devices,streaming video, streaming audio, radio, television, voice portal, website, web meeting, an information presentation environment and the like.According to other aspects of the invention, the storing operation ofthe method may use a computer, an off-line storage medium, a portabledevice, and so on as is described elsewhere herein with respect to atleast FIG. 1.

According to alternative aspects of the invention, the ancillary supportenvironment 111 may include electronic mail, web browser, online agent,instant messaging, paging, text messaging, short message service, mobilestation, internet-enabled device, user equipment (UE), any futureadvancement thereof, or the like.

As described elsewhere herein, according to aspects of the invention,the advertisement may include a logo, name, commercial symbol, virtualobject associated with an advertiser, audio, video, banner,spokesperson, mascot, character or so on.

As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate based at least onthe teachings provided herein, the location may include, but is notlimited to, a wearable display, a game piece, a game card, a gameelement, a display controlled or influenced by the participant, a webpage, an internet resource, a time slot in an audio or video stream,radio or television broadcast, on-hold audio message, real worldclothing, dress, sticker, billboard, poster, vending machine,programmable paper, media projected onto a real-world space or the like.

As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate based at least onthe teachings provided herein, the reward may be tangible or intangiblesuch as contest clues, licensing fees royalty fees or so on.

In one aspect of the invention, the one or more interactions may includeincreasing the reward when aspects of the virtual world are shared usingthe advertisement group, tracking click events and click-through events,or transferring aspects of the virtual world to another medium. Forexample, rewards to a participant may be increased if his or heradvertisements are clicked on by a user, resulting in bringing up a webpage from which a purchase may be effected.

In many of the aspects described herein the method may operate to paythe reward(s) to an advertiser. In alternative aspects of the invention,the reward to the advertiser may be different from the award to theconsumer. In further aspects, there may not be an immediate reward toanyone.

In an alternative aspect of the invention, the method may include theoperation of charging a fee to the participant based on the selectedadvertisement group. This operation is illustrated in FIG. 2D asoperation 276. In aspects of the invention, the method may charge a feeto a participant for access to particular advertising materials, such asthose including various celebrities, new products, various musicalsoundtracks, scores, etc.

In an alternative aspect of the invention, the method may optionallyaggregate the selection, after the receiving the selection of theadvertisement group, based on at least one of i) a count of theadvertisement group or ii) a count of the participants, as isillustrated in FIG. 2D as operation 278. In further aspects of theinvention, the method may aggregate other elements generated or trackedbefore, during or after each or any of the operations described herein.In one aspect of the invention, the aggregation operation may beperformed at a public event, such as, but not limited to, a theatre,where participants in the audience make individual selections of one ormore advertisement groups that are aggregated to determine a selectionof the overall audience.

In another aspect of the invention, the method may provide for thepresentation of the selected advertisement group, which may occur atuser-selected places and times or at places and times determined by atleast sensors that provide information indicating the user's actions orthe user's location. For example, a cellular telephone equipped withshort-range wireless technology may provide persistent information aboutthe selected advertisement group, and places and times for itspresentation on a publicly-viewable display when the user carries thephone within the wireless communication range of the display.

If the advertisement(s) are purely graphical in nature, they may bepresented on the 2D avatar image or 3D avatar form using any means knownto those of ordinary skill in the art. If they contain audio oranimation or other multimedia elements, these elements may be played aspart of the avatars' behavior at times designated by the user ordetermined by the system. FIG. 5 shows a screen from an aspect of theinvention in which branding 501 is displayed on avatar 510, which isengaged in animated activity within the virtual world. Otherpresentation forms are contemplated.

The time and manner of the presentation of the selected advertisementmay be determined entirely by the consumer, or may be at least partiallycontrolled by server(s) 102, 104. For example, a corporate logo may beavailable for presentation on a cap worn by an avatar, an audio sequencemay be available to play each time an avatar performs a specifiedaction, such as waving, and a musical routine may be available for anavatar to perform whenever the consumer controlling the avatar chooses.The advertisement may be created by any party commissioned to do so bythe advertiser, including the consumers themselves. Consumers might beencouraged to submit ideas to the host or the advertiser regardingadvertisements that may be made available for presentation in thevirtual world. Consumers might also themselves be advertisers, andsubmit and place their own advertising. Alternatively, consumers may beempowered to combine, or “mash up,” elements to create new ads. Suchmash-ups may be available to only the consumer who creates the mash-up,or they may be available to all consumers. In addition, there may beprizes or other rewards offered to the consumer(s) who creates the mostpopular and/or effective mash-ups.

In addition, as described herein, the placement of an advertisement isnot limited to the virtual person of a human-like avatar. For example, aposter may advertise a product in a virtual space that may be controlledor shared by an avatar, such as the avatar's virtual room, studio, orvirtual wall space. In alternative aspects, a user may operate a virtualstore with multiple advertisements being presented within a space thatis controlled by him/her. For example, in one or more aspects of theinvention, space and room are examples of locations in the virtualworld, however, the locations are not limited to just these examples, asone of ordinary skill would appreciate based at least on the teachingsprovided herein, other locations may be constructed, selected, and/orprovided. For example, FIG. 6 shows a screen from an aspect of theinvention in which an avatar 630 is engaged in animated activity withinthe virtual world. The consumer has named the avatar 630 Angel, and s/hehas selected to place the Coca Cola® logo on her body 640. The consumerhas also selected to place an Adidas® poster on the turntable 620. Ifthe advertisement(s) are purely graphical in nature, they aretexture-mapped onto the 2D image or 3D form in virtual spaces. If theycontain audio or animation or other multimedia elements, these elementsmay be played at times designated by the user or determined by thesystem.

Alternatively, the advertisement may be presented on a displaycontrolled or shared by a user and viewable by the user or by others inthe real world. The presentation may occur at user-selected places andtimes, or the determination of place and time for presentation could beperformed by the server(s) 102, 104 based in part on sensors known inthe art that provide information indicating the user's actions orlocation (for example, sensing real-world location from GlobalPositioning signals).

Another aspect of the invention is that users may be given incentivesfor choosing to include advertisements on their avatars. In exchange forchoosing a particular advertisement, the consumer may be awarded unitsof money, credits or coupons that can be applied towards buying whole orfractional goods and services (in the real or virtual world), clues forwinning games and contests, other information or opportunities withperceived value, or any other scarce or present resource. In one aspect,the invention provides a mechanism for money or credits to be deducteddirectly from the sponsor's account, though this is optional.

Rewards may accrue to a user simply for the act of choosing anadvertisement. At a minimum, the user him/herself is exposed to the adas a result, and the potential created for later exposure to otherusers. The size of the reward may depend on criteria such as exposure(measured or anticipated) of the advertisement to the audience, asmeasured in number of users in the environment, the number of usersviewing the environment, the number of minutes the advertisement ispresented in the environment, or some combination of these. According toadditional aspects of the invention, rewards may be based on attributesof the presented ad such as its size, orientation, or the presence ofanimation or sound.

Rewards might also take into account the user's status in the virtualworld, such as the amount of land or other relevant resourcesaccumulated in a multi-player game of conquest, or elements in theconsumer's profile in the consumer database 150. An advertiser may alsoreward consumers for submitting for the advertiser's considerationdesigns for inclusion in the list of advertisements available forselection and presentation by other consumers in the virtual world.Further, user rewards may be based in whole or in part on a proportionof the compensation paid to the host by the advertiser whoseadvertisement has been selected, or on any other criterion deemedsuitable by the advertiser or the host proprietor.

Moreover, host and advertiser could structure the rewards with a viewtoward increasing traffic to and average time spent in the particularvirtual world. For example, the size of the reward could increase withthe amount of time spent presenting the advertisement, and thus with theamount of time spent in the virtual world. In another aspect of theinvention, the size of the reward could increase when the consumershares aspects of the visual world (such as scenes or links) withothers, when a viewer of the advertisement connects with other networkedinformation related to the advertisement (such as “clicking through”from the advertisement in a virtual world to an informational web pageelsewhere in the networked environment), or when the user transfers ascene containing the advertisement to another medium (such as an emailor a printed image). The consumer presumably will take into account thereward structure in making decisions regarding his/her participation inthe virtual world. The decisions of interest to the host may be recordedin the presentation tracking database 154.

Depending on the nature of the reward, distribution of the rewards tousers may be handled in the virtual or in the real world. Increasing thecredit an avatar may draw on in a virtual casino, for example, maylikely be done entirely in the virtual world, while awarding productsamples may require mailing those samples in the real world, just asrewarding frequent flier miles would require updating the consumer'saccount stored in a computer that is not necessarily part of the virtualworld. The host may establish appropriate ancillary systems ofwell-known types to handle such tasks.

Server(s) 102, 104 may maintain several databases, including customerdatabase 150 and presentation tracking database 154 mentioned above, aswell as advertising database 152. FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C show the databasefields for users, advertisers and transactions, respectively, as used inaspects of the invention. As one of ordinary skill in the relevant artswould appreciate based at least on the teachings provided herein, thedatabase fields may be constructed to facilitate the exchange andtracking of information in accordance with the aspects of the invention.Other database arrangements are contemplated.

The server(s) 102, 104 may track and record in the appropriate database,152, information relevant to billing an advertiser, such as the totaltime 433 that advertisement 431 is presented in the environment 432, thenumber of other users that are visually exposed to the advertisement434, the number of non-participant viewers who are visually exposed tothe advertisement 436, or the total times of these exposures 438. Thisinformation may be stored in presentation tracking database 154 by theserver. Off line programs (shown in FIG. 1 as billing system 170) mayuse this information to generate information for billing theadvertisers. Alternatively, the client software may track thisinformation, and transmit it periodically to the server. In anotheralternative aspect, some or all of the information may be stored in asmart card or other off-line storage medium, as described elsewhereherein. In addition, such off-line storage devices may be updatedperiodically and may not require a persistent connection.

Consumer database 150 may include profiles of consumers (401) who haveparticipated or have expressed an intention to participate in theparticular virtual world. It may include user registration information(402-405). The consumer database may include information (406) necessaryto allow a consumer to pick up where s/he previously left the virtualworld by storing information about her/his avatar and its recentactivities. The database may also be used to assemble information aboutthe consumer from any kind of virtual or real world source to allow theadvertisers to better target their advertisements and reward offers 407.Consistent with privacy obligations and commitments, the host may keeptrack of various data relating to a consumer's participation in thevirtual world, such as the actions of the user's avatar, the user'spurchases, the amount of time the consumer spends in the virtual world,the scores or other quantifications of accomplishment achieved by theavatar in a game, as well as the consumer's choices with respect to theadvertisements offered to him/her for present in the virtual world 408.The host may also use these data to update the consumer's profile in theconsumer database 150.

The advertisement database 152 may include an ID (421) for eachadvertisement available for selection by the consumer. The advertisementmay include text, symbols such as corporate logos, graphic elements suchas pictures of a product, video or animation sequences, audio elements,or any other multimedia elements designed or the like to enhance aparticular brand, to create consumer awareness of a particular productor the consumer's need for it, to promote sales of a particular product,or to promote awareness of a particular source of consumer goods. If theadvertisement is being served externally, an appropriate address orpointer may be placed in the database. The advertisement may be assimple as branding or as complex as a video/audio sequence in the styleof a television commercial. The advertisement database may also mayinclude information on how the advertisement will be presented once aconsumer selects it.

To derive revenue from the advertisements, the host of the networkedvirtual environment may do one or more of the following:

Charge the advertiser based upon exposure (measured or anticipated) ofthe advertisement to the audience, as measured in number of consumers inthe environment, the number of non-participants viewing the environment,the number of minutes the avatar presents the advertisement in theenvironment, or some combination of these.

Charge the advertiser a fixed or time-variable fee for itsadvertisements to be included in the set of advertisements that theconsumer can choose from.

Charge the consumer a fee which is passed in part to the sponsor as alicensing fee or royalty. Factors determining the fee to the advertisermay also include the make-up of the pool of participants in the virtualworld, the hours of the day during which the advertisement is displayed,the complexity of the advertisement, the number of times a particularadvertisement was selected in a given period of time, the total timethat the advertisement is displayed, and the actual or anticipatednumber of participant and/or users exposed to the advertisement.

The actual billing of the advertiser may be handled using a billingsupport system 170 that uses information obtained from databases 150,152 and 154 to calculate the fee owed by the various advertisers inaccordance with the applicable factors as discussed above.

There are a number of other benefits that may result fromconsumer-chosen advertising in accordance with the present invention.When selecting a particular advertisement, the consumer not onlyconfirms his/her own interest in a particular product or his/herallegiance to a particular brand, but also may (i) become an advertisingsubject, and (ii) become a vehicle for delivering advertising to theother consumers participating in or viewing the world. In an aspect ofthe invention, for these other consumers, the advertisement presented bythis avatar contains information about the interests and beliefs of theconsumer who is represented by this avatar, or the role this consumerwants his/her avatar to play. Thus, noticing the advertisementspresented by the various participants may further the consumers'intentions in participating in the virtual world in the first place. Forexample, the particular advertisement presented by a participant maybecome a conversation opener in a chat-room, or a basis for choosingallies in a multi-player game just to name a few.

In an alternative aspect of the invention, one of ordinary skill in theart will be able to use the advertising method depicted in FIG. 1 anddescribed herein for presenting virtual advertisements in the ‘realworld.’ The user may perform the selection and placement process byusing the client computer programs (122, etc. in FIG. 1), which need nothave continuous connectivity to the computer network (110). When theuser indicates s/he is satisfied with the selection, the relevantinformation may be transmitted to the server(s) 102, 104 and may beoptionally stored in consumer database 150 or presentation trackingdatabase 154, or other devices as described elsewhere herein. Atselected times or places, the relevant advertisements may be dynamicallyincluded in the presentation on the display(s) 132, 134, 136. Otherusers who are nearby in the real world may thus exposed to thisadvertisement. The user also may view ads placed by other users on or inconnection with their displays. Server(s) 102, 104 cause the exposure ofadvertisements in this manner to be logged in databases 150, 154.

In another alternative aspect of the invention, one of ordinary skill inthe art may be able to use the advertising method depicted in FIG. 1 anddescribed herein to store the consumer database 150 and/or presentationtracking database 154 on an off-line storage medium such as a “smartcard,” or on storage media not directly connected to server(s) 102, 104.

Other applications of the present invention may include the following:

“Advertisements” promoting anything at all can be constructed byuser-participants for other user-participants to use. All thecompensation schemes discussed above may be applied, with virtual-worldmoney or possibly real-world money.

User-participants may organize sponsored events (perhaps only open toavatars sporting the appropriate advertisement) in the virtual world andreceive compensation for this.

User-participants may construct novel advertisements (on behalf ofreal-world advertisers) that are appropriate to the networked virtualworld. These may be submitted electronically to the advertiser forapproval. If approved, they would become available for consumers toplace on their avatars. Optionally, the constructor of the approvedadvertisement may receive compensation from the advertiser based on anyof the above compensation schemes.

User-participants can select advertisement(s) to be presented on a webpage (for example, a “banner ad”) served by a server for him/herself orother real-world people to see, with compensation determined as above.

Users may select advertisement(s) to be placed on a real-world objectthat is custom-built using techniques known in the art for custommanufacturing, for example, an article of clothing, a towel, a vehiclelicense plate, or a vehicle license plate holder.

The avatar may operate in the real world rather than a virtual world,for example as a robot or other means of ‘telepresence.’

The display may be wearable and connected via wireless connection to theclient computer, and the wearer of the display may selectadvertisement(s) to be presented for other real-world people to see,with compensation determined as above.

The display may be transported by the consumer (for example, on anautomobile or shopping cart) and connected via wireless connection tothe client computer, and the transporter of the display may selectadvertisement(s) to be displayed for him/herself other real-world peopleto see, with compensation determined as above.

The advertisements may be audio or video, and inserted into streamingmedia (such as a telephone conversation, an audio stream from a radiobroadcaster or voice portal, an on-hold message, or a video streamtransmitted to or recorded by the user or the like) at points in time orupon events selected by the user, for presentation to him/herself orother real-world people.

Avatars may be configured, and advertisements may be selected and/orconstructed not by the users themselves but by software agents or “bots”that are instructed or programmed by the users.

The display and computer may both be wearable, with the computerconnected via wireless connection to the network, and the wearer of thedisplay may select an advertisement to be displayed for other real-worldpeople to see, with compensation determined as above.

User-participants may select a group or category of advertisement (suchas ads about a specific product type, a specific product, productsrelevant to a specific activity or interest, or advertisements of aspecific advertiser), after which the system or host may select thespecific ad from the selected group or category.

User-participants may participate in a group selection process todetermine the advertisement(s) to be presented, e.g., in a votingprocess.

User-participants may create a user profile indicating the groups orcategories of advertisements they wish to present. Then the system orhost may select the specific ad from the selected group or categorybased on information stored in the user-created profile.

User-participants can select modified or enhanced behaviors to bepresented in conjunction with the selected advertisement.

The present invention (i.e., the operations or components of theinvention, including those illustrated in the figures or any partthereof) may be implemented using hardware, software or a combinationthereof and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or otherprocessing systems. In one aspect, the invention may comprise one ormore computer systems capable of carrying out the functionalitydescribed herein. An example of a computer system 700 is shown in FIG.7. The computer system 700 may include one or more processors, such asprocessor 704. The processor 704 may be connected to a communicationinfrastructure 706 (e.g., a communications bus, cross over bar, ornetwork). Various software aspects are described in terms of thisexemplary computer system. After reading this description, it willbecome apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how toimplement the invention using other computer systems and/or computerarchitectures.

Computer system 700 may include a display interface 702 that may forwardgraphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure 706(or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on the display unit 730.

Computer system 700 may also include a main memory 708, preferablyrandom access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 710.The secondary memory 710 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 712and/or a removable storage drive 714, representing a floppy disk drive,a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc., but which is notlimited thereto. The removable storage drive 714 may read from and/orwrite to a removable storage unit 718 in a well-known manner. Removablestorage unit 718, may represent a floppy disk, magnetic tape, opticaldisk, etc. which may be read by and written to by removable storagedrive 714. As will be appreciated, the removable storage unit 718 mayinclude a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computersoftware and/or data.

In alternative aspects, secondary memory 710 may include other similarmeans for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loadedinto computer system 700. Such means may include, for example, aremovable storage unit 722 and an interface 720. Examples of such mayinclude, but are not limited to, a program cartridge and cartridgeinterface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memorychip (such as an EPROM, or PROM) and associated socket, USB based“thumb” drives, and/or other removable storage units 722 and interfaces720 that may allow software and data to be transferred from theremovable storage unit 722 to computer system 700.

Computer system 700 may also include a communications interface 724.Communications interface 724 may allow software and data to betransferred between computer system 700 and external devices. Examplesof communications interface 724 may include, but are not limited to, amodem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communicationsport, a PCMCIA slot and card, etc. Software and data transferred viacommunications interface 724 may be in the form of signals 728, whichmay be, for example, electronic, electromagnetic, optical or othersignals capable of being received by communications interface 724. Thesesignals 728 may be provided to communications interface 724 via acommunications path (i.e., channel) 726. This channel 726 may carrysignals 728 and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, aphone line, a cellular phone link, an RF link and/or othercommunications channels.

According to an exemplary aspect of the invention, the participants mayinclude a company with a product to promote (“the company”), anadvertising agency working on behalf of the company (“the agency”), atleast one provider of an interactive medium (“the host”), and at leastone user of an interactive medium (“the user’ or “users”). The agencymay develop an advertising campaign for the launch of a new product fromthe company. The campaign may include a range of ads that may be used todecorate objects. At least some of the ads in the campaign may includean interactive corporate logo. The ads, including the company logo, maybe animated and/or may contain an audio component. As an alternateaspect, the user may be able to create customized advertisements bycombining (or “mashing up”) individual advertisement components and/orelements. Examples of elements include a company logo, a representationof the product, a representation of a company spokesperson, and companytrademarks.

A user may be asked to register with the advertising campaign and to useat least one ad, either provided by the agency and/or company or createdby the user, in some version on the user's avatar, space, property,user-controlled space, or similar user-affiliated environment in theinteractive medium, a portion of the user's web page or blog, the user'sinstant messaging application, or the like. Alternatively, the user maytransmit the animated and/or audible advertisement, including thecompany's logo, in the user's email, video or audio blog (also known asa “podcast”), or website. The company, agency, and/or host may find itdesirable to limit the size, type, and/or number of advertisements auser displays (e.g. on the user's avatar) to avoid over exposure thatmay generate negative sentiments among the viewers of theadvertisements. As a reward for registering with the advertisingcampaign and downloading the advertisement, the user may receive, forexample, a free download of a digital music file of the user's choosing.Other rewards, including those discussed elsewhere in this application,are contemplated and are within the scope of the invention.

The advertisement itself may be linked to a tracking system thataccumulates statistics on the registered user and records each time, forexample, the user places the advertisement in an email message, the userdisplays the advertisement on a web page, or the advertisement isclicked on, viewed, or otherwise interacted with by another user (notthe registered user) in the interactive medium. Clicking on an ad, as anexample of an interaction, may, e.g., send a viewer to a web page aboutthe company or to an area of a virtual world dedicated to the companyand the advertising campaign. Tracking data may be made available to theagency, the company, the host, and/or the registered user.

The user may receive additional rewards, as outlined above, for reachingcertain thresholds or quotas of interaction. Continuing the aboveexample, the user may receive an additional free digital music downloador similar reward at 20 interactions, 50 interactions, and every 100interactions thereafter. Alternatively, different types of interactionsmay be weighted differently, as evidenced by a “point value” or otherscheme, based on the relative value placed on each type of interactionby the company, agency, and/or host. For example, simply viewing anadvertisement on a web page may only be worth 1 point per view. Eachtime a visitor to the web page clicks on the advertisement, theregistered user may be awarded 5 points. Each time the advertisement isinteracted with on the user's avatar in, for example, a virtual world,the user may receive 30 points. Under this aspect, the points may beredeemed for rewards based on a rate determined by the agency, thecompany, and/or the host. For example purposes only, each digital musicdownload may “cost” 25 points. Regardless of the reward scheme used, itmay also be desirable to provide an extra incentive and provide asubstantial reward to the top registered users at the end of thecampaign. Under such an aspect, a number, e.g. one thousand, of theregistered users with the most, e.g., interactions or overall points mayreceive a prize of substantial value. This prize may be, by way ofexample only, a top-of-the-line digital music player, a high-end mobilephone with a year of free service or the like.

Additional examples of prizes include coupons, gift cards, codes to gainaccess to restricted areas in a virtual world, and information to unlocklevels in a game. The “grand prize” awarded to top performer(s) may, forexample purposes only, be the opportunity to appear in the company'scommercials. Such commercials may appear on traditional media, such astelevision and print ads, or on interactive media, such as a virtualworld, or both.

By making tracking data available to the registered users, the agency,company, and/or host may empower the users to create and deploy moreeffective advertisements. In other words, the registered users may beincentivized to display ads through the reward system. By reviewing auser's tracking data, the user may be able to determine which ads aremore effective at generating rewards for the user. The user may thencreate more ads, or adjust the manner in which the ads are displayed, tomaximize the user's reward. These ads, presumably, are also moreeffective at conveying the company's message and achieving the goals ofthe advertising campaign. Moreover, by adjusting the rewards assigned tocertain categories of advertisements, the agency and/or company may, forexample, encourage users to create ads in those categories. The agencyand/or company may adjust point value, or other rewards, based on, forexample, tracking data about which types of advertisements or whichadvertising channels are the most effective. For example, virtualreality may be more effective than web pages. Alternatively, the companyand/or agency could weight ads to emphasize more interactive ads, suchas, for example, those implemented in a virtual world, over moretraditional “push” or display ads.

If the rewards offered to registered users are complementary goods tothe product being advertised, then the company and/or agency may alsotrack to see which of the users purchase the product. For example, acampaign for a new digital music player may offer free digital musicdownloads, carrying cases, headphones, and other related goods asrewards. The company and/or agency may wish to collect informationrelated to which of the registered users bought the advertised digitalmusic player. The company and/or agency may also wish to collect relatedinformation, such as, e.g., whether the user already owned a digitalmusic player, and whether that player was made by the company or one ofits competitors, in an effort to determine how many registered userswere induced by the rewards to purchase the product and how many usersregistered with the advertising campaign because they already owned arelated device.

Additionally, the invention contemplated herein may also includeoptimizing any one or more of the above-described processes includingoptimizing the selecting of an advertisement, optimizing the selectingof a location, optimizing the creating of a selected advertisement,optimizing the providing of a reward and so on. This optimization may beexecuted in an automated manner. Moreover, the automated manner may be aprocess performed by one of statistical processing, artificialintelligence, predictive analytical techniques or the like.

In this document, the terms machine or computer readable storage mediumand machine or computer usable medium are used to generally refer tomedia such as, but not limited to, removable storage drive 714, a harddisk installed in hard disk drive 712, and signals 728. These computerprogram media are means for providing software to computer system 700.

Computer programs (also called, among other things, computer controllogic) may be stored in main memory 708 and/or secondary memory 710.Computer programs may also be received via communications interface 724.Such computer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 700 toperform the features of the invention as discussed herein. Inparticular, the computer programs, when executed, may enable theprocessor 704 to perform the invention in accordance with theabove-described aspects. Accordingly, such computer programs representcontrollers of the computer system 700.

In an aspect where the invention is implemented using software, thesoftware may be stored in a computer program product and loaded intocomputer system 700 using, for example, removable storage drive 714,hard drive 712 or communications interface 724. The control logic(software), when executed by the processor 704, causes the processor 704to perform the functions of the invention as described herein.

In another aspect, the invention may be implemented primarily inhardware using, for example, hardware components such as applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardwarestate machine so as to perform the functions described herein will beapparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s). As discussed above,the invention is implemented using any combination of hardware, firmwareand software.

While various aspects of the invention have been described above, itshould be understood that they have been presented by way of example,and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in therelevant art that various changes in form and detail may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. This isespecially true in light of technology and terms within the relevantart(s) that may be later developed. Thus the invention should not belimited by any of the above-described exemplary aspects, but should bedefined only in accordance with the following claims and theirequivalents.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: identifying, by aprocessing device, a plurality of location identifiers each representinga different advertising location of a plurality of advertising locationswithin a display in an interactive medium; receiving a user inputidentifying a selection of a location from the plurality of advertisinglocations; in response to receiving the user input, associating thereceived user input to a location identifier of the plurality oflocation identifiers; after an advertisement is displayed at thelocation of said selection, tracking, by the processing device, userinteractions via the interactive medium with the advertisement at thelocation of said selection; applying an automated process to a result ofthe tracking to generate analyzed information, wherein the automatedprocess includes at least one of statistical processing, artificialintelligence, or predictive analysis techniques; and determining, by theprocessing device, an optimized reward based on the associated locationidentifier and the analyzed information.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the advertising locations are associated with different rewardvalues, and the method further comprises identifying, by the processingdevice, a plurality of advertisement identifiers each representing anadvertisement selected from a plurality of advertisements, wherein theadvertisement at the location of said selection is one of the pluralityof advertisements, wherein a reward value associated with each of theplurality of advertisements is based on a particular advertisinglocation selected from the plurality of advertising locations.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the advertising locations are associated withdifferent reward values, and the method further comprises determining,by the processing device, each of the different reward values based on alocation of a corresponding one of the plurality of advertisinglocations.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising locationsare associated with different reward values, and the method furthercomprises: identifying, by the processing device, a plurality ofadvertisements configured for display in each of the plurality ofadvertising locations, wherein the advertisement at the location of saidselection is one of the plurality of advertisements; and determining, bythe processing device, a corresponding reward value of the differentreward values based on the advertisement at the location of saidselection.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, bythe processing device, a plurality of advertisements configured fordisplay in each of the plurality of advertising locations, wherein theadvertisement at the location of said selection is one of the pluralityof advertisements; and replacing, by the processing device, theadvertisement at the location of said selection with a differentadvertisement in response to the result of the tracking or changing thelocation of the advertisement in response to the result of the tracking,or any combination thereof.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values, andthe method further comprises: ranking, by the processing device, each ofthe plurality of advertising locations based on the result of thetracking; and determining, by the processing device, each of thedifferent reward values based on a rank of a corresponding advertisinglocation selected from the plurality of advertising locations.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the processingdevice, a user input identifying a selection of the advertising locationfrom the plurality of advertising locations to present theadvertisement; and associating, by the processing device, a useridentifier with the advertisement and the advertising location.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising modifying, by the processingdevice, the advertisement or the advertising location based on theresult of the tracking.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values, andthe method further comprises increasing, by the processing device, aparticular reward value of the different reward values based on themodifying.
 10. A computer-readable memory device having instructionsstored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device,cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:identifying a plurality of location identifiers each representing adifferent advertising location of a plurality of advertising locationswithin a display in an interactive medium; in response to receiving auser input identifying a selection of a location from the plurality ofadvertising locations, associating the received user input to a locationidentifier of the plurality of location identifiers; after anadvertisement is displayed at the location of said selection, tracking,by the processing device, user interactions via the interactive mediumwith the advertisement at the location of said selection; applying anautomated process to a result of the tracking to generate analyzedinformation, wherein the automated process includes at least one ofstatistical processing, artificial intelligence, or predictive analysistechniques; and determining an optimized reward based on the associatedlocation identifier and the analyzed information.
 11. Thecomputer-readable memory device of claim 10, wherein the advertisinglocations are associated with different reward values, and wherein theoperations further comprise identifying a plurality of advertisementidentifiers each representing an advertisement selected from a pluralityof advertisements, wherein the advertisement at the location of saidselection is one of the plurality of advertisements, wherein a rewardvalue associated with each of the plurality of advertisements is basedon a particular advertising location selected from the plurality ofadvertising locations.
 12. The computer-readable memory device of claim10, wherein the advertising locations are associated with differentreward values, and wherein the operations further comprise determiningeach of the different reward values based on a location of acorresponding one of the plurality of advertising locations.
 13. Thecomputer-readable memory device of claim 10, wherein the advertisinglocations are associated with different reward values, and wherein theoperations further comprise: identifying a plurality of advertisementsconfigured for display in each of the plurality of advertisinglocations, wherein the advertisement at the location of said selectionis one of the plurality of advertisements; and determining acorresponding reward value of the different reward values based on theadvertisement at the location of said selection.
 14. Thecomputer-readable memory device of claim 10, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: identifying a plurality of advertisements configuredfor display in each of the plurality of advertising locations, whereinthe advertisement at the location of said selection is one of theplurality of advertisements; and replacing the advertisement at thelocation of said selection with a different advertisement in response tothe result of the tracking or changing the location of the advertisementin response to the result of the tracking, or any combinations thereof.15. The computer-readable memory device of claim 10, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values, andwherein the operations further comprise: ranking each of the pluralityof advertising locations based on the result of the tracking; anddetermining each of the different reward values based on a rank of acorresponding advertising location selected from the plurality ofadvertising locations.
 16. The computer-readable memory device of claim10, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a user inputidentifying a selection of the advertising location from the pluralityof advertising locations to present the advertisement.
 17. Thecomputer-readable memory device of claim 16, wherein the operationsfurther comprise modifying the advertisement or the advertising locationbased on the result of the tracking.
 18. The computer-readable memorydevice of claim 17, wherein the advertising locations are associatedwith different reward values, and wherein the operations furthercomprise increasing a particular reward value of the different rewardvalues based on the modifying.
 19. An apparatus comprising: means foridentifying a plurality of location identifiers each representing adifferent advertising location selected from a plurality of advertisinglocations within a display in an interactive medium; means for receivinga user input identifying a selection of a location from the plurality oflocations; means for tracking user interactions via the interactivemedium with an advertisement displayed at the location of saidselection; and means for determining an optimized reward correspondingto a location identifier of the location identifiers, said locationidentifier associated with the selection of the location identified bythe user input, wherein the optimized reward is based on the locationidentifier of the location identifiers and an analysis of informationgenerated responsive to application of an automated process to a resultof the tracking, wherein the automated process includes at least one ofstatistical processing, artificial intelligence, or predictive analysistechniques.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the advertisinglocations are associated with different reward values and the apparatusfurther comprises means for identifying a plurality of advertisementidentifiers each representing an advertisement selected from a pluralityof advertisements, wherein the advertisement at the location of saidselection is one of the plurality of advertisements, wherein a rewardvalue associated with each of the plurality of advertisements is basedon a particular advertising location selected from the plurality ofadvertising locations.
 21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values andthe apparatus further comprises means for determining each of thedifferent reward values based on a location of a corresponding one ofthe plurality of advertising locations.
 22. The apparatus of claim 19,wherein the advertising locations are associated with different rewardvalues and the apparatus further comprises: means for identifying aplurality of advertisements configured for display in each of theplurality of advertising locations, wherein the advertisement at thelocation of said selection is one of the plurality of advertisements;and means for determining a corresponding reward value of the differentreward values based on the advertisement at the location of saidselection.
 23. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising: means foridentifying a plurality of advertisements configured for display in eachof the plurality of advertising locations, wherein the advertisement atthe location of said selection is one of the plurality ofadvertisements; and means for replacing the advertisement at thelocation of said selection with a different advertisement in response toa result of the tracking or changing the location of the advertisementin response to the result of the tracking, or any combinations thereof.24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the advertising locations areassociated with different reward values and the apparatus furthercomprises: means for ranking each of the plurality of advertisinglocations based on the result of the tracking; and means for determiningeach of the different reward values based on a rank of a correspondingadvertising location selected from the plurality of advertisinglocations.
 25. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising means forreceiving a user input identifying a selection of the advertisinglocation from the plurality of advertising locations to present theadvertisement.
 26. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising meansfor modifying the advertisement or the advertising location based on theresult of the tracking.
 27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values andthe apparatus further comprises means for increasing a particular rewardvalue of the different reward values based on the modifying.
 28. Anapparatus, comprising: a memory device configured to store instructionsassociated with an application program; and a processing device that, inresponse to executing the instructions stored in the memory device, isconfigured to: identify a plurality of location identifiers eachrepresenting a different advertising location selected from a pluralityof advertising locations within a display in an interactive medium;receive a user input identifying a selection of a location from theplurality of advertising locations; in response to receiving the userinput, associate the received user input to a-location identifier of theplurality of location identifiers; after an advertisement is displayedat the location of said selection, track user interactions via theinteractive medium with the advertisement at the location of saidselection; applying an automated process to a result of the tracking togenerate analyzed information, wherein the automated process includes atleast one of statistical processing, artificial intelligence, orpredictive analysis techniques; and determine an optimized reward basedon the associated location identifier and the analyzed information. 29.The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the advertising locations areassociated with different reward values, and wherein the processingdevice is further configured to identify a plurality of advertisementidentifiers each representing an advertisement selected from a pluralityof advertisements, wherein the advertisement at the location of saidselection is one of the plurality of advertisements, wherein a rewardvalue associated with each of the plurality of advertisements is basedon a particular advertising location selected from the plurality ofadvertising locations.
 30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values, andwherein the processing device is further configured to determine each ofthe different reward values based on a location of a corresponding oneof the plurality of advertising locations.
 31. The apparatus of claim28, wherein the advertising locations are associated with differentreward values, and wherein the processing device is further configuredto: identify a plurality of advertisements configured for display ineach of the plurality of advertising locations, wherein theadvertisement at the location of said selection is one of the pluralityof advertisements; and determine a corresponding reward value of thedifferent reward values based on the advertisement at the location ofsaid selection.
 32. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processingdevice is further configured to: identify a plurality of advertisementsconfigured for display in each of the plurality of advertisinglocations, wherein the advertisement at the location of said selectionis one of the plurality of advertisements; and replace the advertisementat the location of said selection with a different advertisement inresponse to the result of the tracking or changing the location of theadvertisement in response to the result of the tracking, or anycombinations thereof.
 33. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein theadvertising locations are associated with different reward values, andwherein the processing device is further configured to: rank each of theplurality of advertising locations based on the result of the tracking;and determine each of the different reward values based on a rank of acorresponding advertising location selected from the plurality ofadvertising locations.
 34. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein theprocessing device is further configured to receive a user inputidentifying a selection of the advertising location from the pluralityof advertising locations to present the advertisement.
 35. The apparatusof claim 34, wherein the processing device is further configured tomodify the advertisement or the advertising location based on the resultof the tracking.
 36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the advertisinglocations are associated with different reward values, and wherein theprocessing device is further configured to increase a particular rewardvalue of the different reward values based on the modifying.